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The Sheep Have Spoken: More Wolves!

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Election night of which, thankfully, I watched very little was the culmination of a long, shabby, corrupt process ending in a celebration of a world that does not exist: participatory democracy. Americans were allowed to choose their destroyer. Would it be the guy who made his millions trashing companies, workers' jobs, and their pension plans and promised to bring these same skills to government or would it be the bland incumbent whose record in office could have been beaten by a cheap ham sandwich.

Luckily for the incumbent, his base came through for him. Hispanics voted for the man who has deported more of them than any of his predecessors. African Americans who lost most of their wealth under him and whose unemployment rate remains twice that of whites continued to back him. Students strangled by student debt he has helped heap on them came out big for him. Women voted for the man who enshrined the Hyde Amendment in an Executive Order and under whom, despite Lucy Ledbetter, the wage gap has remained unchanged. And then there are liberals and progressives whom Obama has treated with undisquised contempt and yet who through party tribalism, TINA, or lesser evilism continue to make possible everything they say they oppose: the wars, indefinite detention, the kill lists, the bailouts, the lack of prosecutions, reform, help for homeowners, and jobs for the unemployed, and finally the attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. It is ironic that progressives have criticized Obama for pre-compromising with Republicans, and so losing all leverage, when they do exactly the same thing with him. And so it is because of you, Obama has his second term. He didn't even bother to promise you anything this time around. He doesn't even need to renege on any promises this time. He owes you nothing. He does not support your causes. He never did. He has been working against them for four year now and will continue to do so.

This election was all about the status quo. Would we choose to keep the same face for the status quo (Obama) or would we change, not the status quo, but its public face (Romney)? This was not a choice we had to make. The status quo is killing us. We did not have to legitimize the authors of our destruction. We could have voted third party. We all could have stayed home. But most accepted the non-choice choice they were given and duly voted for more of the same. It is as Emma Goldman said, "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." But nothing was going to change so the election went ahead as scheduled.

It's the idea, which I think was popularized as a slogan by Thatcher, that capitalism and its sadistic exploits are the only possibility there is. Sounds pretty creepy as a slogan, though... reminds me of the Borg.

When most of the progressive gliterrati, from The Nation, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Moore to Rebecca Solnit and Bill McKibben, turned tail and began frantically urging their readers to swallow their bile and support Obama, CounterPunch stood firm. And we've paid a savage price. We've lost big donors. We've lost subscribers. We've been rejected by liberal foundations. But we didn't back down. We've never backed down. And you can count on us not to back down now that Obama and his neoliberal claque are returning for another four years of budget cuts, bailouts and kill lists. But we need your help. Now.

Please help them if you can.

So how many of the young, the Latinos/Latinas, women will be joining the "Make Him Do It Movement" led by The Nation, Dan Ellsberg, Michael Moore et al.?? Where is the sign up sheet?

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho Marx

I don't read them everyday, but I will gladly make a donation. I was very saddened by Alex Cockburn's passing. What a loss it was to the liberal community. And what a tragedy it would be if on the heels of that, CounterPunch is forced "to fold."

Alexa

“If a dog won’t come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” -- Woodrow Wilson

in several days with your comment, "...whose record in office could have been beaten by a cheap ham sandwich." And only non-existent Deities know, there hasn't much to chuckle about. Thanks!

Racism = prejudice + power. It is both institutional and an internalized system resulting from many things that were done in the past. It can be undone. -- The People's Institute of Survival and Beyond

the victory. The Dems saved their lady parts. They honestly thought Mitt was going to take away their birth control pills. So young women will now be complicit in throwing older women over the side of the boat when the Grand Betrayal happens. So much for old lady parts.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho Marx

BTW, I heard one total for Gary Johnson (FL only?) but nothing for the Greens.

I'm just back on line today, after my power going out about 7PM on Monday, 10/29, when Sandy came ashore and inland to take down big trees and lots of wires. Spent the evening seeing the green glow edged with orange and purple of transformers blowing up.

Ten full days without electricity is, well, bad for any frozen and refrigerated food, but, otherwise I managed. Started getting really cold if out from under the covers about three days ago. Down to 46 degrees inside. Hurray for down and polar fleece!!

No electircity, no heat, no telephone since then until 9 PM last night. BIG Thank You to all you untility workers, local and from out of state, your support systems, etc., for getting us back on line. BTW, cell phones were extremely patchy the first week or so. Almost useless to communicate.

My local government had a warming center and cots set up for people to sleep, but I didnt leaqrn about it until yesterday! The local library was without power and then Cablevision's broadband was out until thes past Monday. I checked the township web site on Monday and saw only the mayor's suggestions for what to do in a hurricane on the front page. Saw nothing else, but I was told it was there, just not really easy to see. Yikes. Who designs these web sites???

Oh, it's also exhausting to try to function in the cold, more so in the dark and cold. It was great when the laundromats were able to open. Warm, and a place to get caught up on one item of daily living.

Another thank you to the local church which opened up a warming, cell phone charging, hot coffee and tea, some food center in their basement. It was a place I could take some of my defrosting food and knew it would go to good use.

The nursing home where my friend with the stroke is staying got back on electricity the Tuesday evening about 6 PM. The center is going to have a huge generator bill....

People with private generators were using about one gallon of gas to get one hour lf electricity, or about a car fill up every day. Some ran it for a few hours only, some all the time. Expensive. And then the gas got really hard to get for a few days.

Glad to hear things are getting better. Sorry they were so bad for so long. We don't realize how dependent we are on our power and communication grids until we lose them. And then suddenly we are literally back in the dark ages.

Summer is here so PLEASE help lambert...

... who still needs buy seeds and soil, especially since "Winter is coming," and pay the bills so he can feed the hamsters that power the wheels that turn the servers at The Mighty Corrente Building. Please, won't you help keep the hamsters shiny and well-fed?

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